Apple Unveils Vision Pro VR Headset: Can Tech Giant Finally Push Virtual Reality Into the Mainstream?

Apple took the wraps off Vision Pro, an expensive pair of goggles the company promises will unlock a new universe of magical new virtual- and augmented-reality apps.

Apple announced the years-in-development headset Monday at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. “I believe that augmented reality is a profound technology,” CEO Tim Cook said, saying that Apple’s introduction of Vision Pro will introduce people to new forms of “spatial computing,” comparing it to the way iPhone introduced smartphones to millions of people.

The system uses eye movements and hand movements for navigation — with no external controllers — and also employs voice input. Vision Pro uses a feature Apple calls Eye Sight that shows a wearer’s eyes if they’re in augmented-reality mode (as opposed to fully immersive VR mode). The headset also includes Apple’s first 3D camera, for capturing spatial video and photos and can serve as a “personal movie theater” with support for Apple TV+, Apple Arcade games and other Apple services.

For all of Apple’s razzle-dazzle, there remains the question of whether the long-awaited VR headset can finally help establish virtual reality as a popular mainstream technology — or whether, despite the heft of Apple’s investment and stellar global brand, it’s essentially a high-priced tech toy.

The tech giant’s VR and mixed-reality headset reportedly has been in development for seven years, and marks the first new product category entry for Apple since it launched Apple Watch in 2015. The company has projected selling 900,000 VR headsets in the first year, Bloomberg reported last month.

Just days prior to Apple’s VR announcement, Meta announced the next generation of its own VR headset, the Meta Quest 3, priced at $500 and slated to ship in the fall of 2023.

To date, VR has mostly gained traction in the gaming space. In 2022, VR and AR headset unit sales sank 21%, falling from 11.2 million to 8.8 million units, according to market research firm IDC, with Meta’s Quest holding roughly 80% market share. IDC cited the “limited number of vendors in the market, a challenging macro-economic environment and a lack of mass market adoption from consumers” for the year-over-year drop.

Other announcements during the 2023 WWDC keynote presentation:

• iOS 17, the next generation of its iPhone operating system (beta in July; available fall 2023). New in iOS 17: updated apps for phone (with personalized contact posters, “live voicemail” that provides a real-time transcription), FaceTime (adding the ability to leave a message) and messages (which adds search filters, automated check-in notices, and “live stickers” from a user’s photos). It includes a new Journal app that prompts you to write personal entries, which can include photos, music and videos, and a feature called StandBy, which displays the time and other info when you place an iPhone on its side. In addition, Apple says autocorrect in iOS 17 is more accurate and personalized and includes sentence-level autocorrection.
• tvOS 17 (available fall 2023), which adds support for FaceTime and the ability to locate your Apple TV remote with an iPhone and features a redesigned control center.
• iPadOS 17 (available fall 2023), featuring interactive widgets on the home screen, new personalized lock-screen options and a version of the Health app designed for iPad.
• MacOS Sonoma (available fall 2023), an upgrade for Apple’s Macs, with interactive widgets and the ability to move widgets anywhere on the screen; “game mode,” which lets you give resource priority to gaming apps; new videoconferencing effects; enhanced private browsing and the ability to set up multiple profiles in Safari; and new screensavers. Game designer Hideo Kojima made an appearance to announce that “Death Stranding Director’s Cut” will be coming to Mac later this year (and that his company is working to bring additional titles to Apple platforms).
• A new lineup of Macs including a MacBook Air laptop with a larger 15.3-inch screen (starting at $1,299); and Mac Studio (from $1,999) and Mac Pro ($from 1,699) desktops with Apple’s new M2 Ultra high-performance microprocessor.

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